About the Campanile (Sather Tower)
One of the oldest structures on campus, and a historic landmark, the Campanile was designed in the early 1900s by John Galen Howard as part of a master architectural plan to give the growing, but architecturally undistinguished, University of California a unique look. Philanthropist Jane K. Sather provided $225,000 for the tower, including a set of 12 bells.
In 1913, the university welcomed a massive amount of 23,000-year-old fossils collected by UC-led excavations at the La Brea tar pits in prehistoric Los Angeles. At first, the remains of saber-toothed cats, dire wolves, giant sloths and other creatures were stored in California Hall’s basement. But since the unfinished Campanile was closer to the paleontology department in Bacon Hall, they were moved. In the 1920s, fossils dated between 9,000 and 13,000 years old from two other California tar seeps joined the collection.
The Campanile’s giant steel frame was finished in January 1914, and then-UC President Benjamin Ide Wheeler and others enjoyed an open-air banquet on the future observation deck. “O stone, stand fast, look high!” Wheeler exclaimed a few months later, at the cornerstone-laying ceremony. At 307 feet tall, the Campanile is the second-tallest freestanding clock and bell tower in the world. (The tallest is the Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower at the University of Birmingham in the UK at 328 feet.)
In late 1915, the tower, with its granite walls and white marble spire, was complete. Visitors arrived on March 24, 1916, for a 10-cent elevator ride and sweeping Bay Area views. Admission for those with a campus ID always has been free. By 1920, the Campanile was a major tourist attraction that drew, on busy Sunday afternoons, more than 1,000 people. Crowds continue to grow annually, and last year, more than 100,000 people from around the world took a tour of the tower and gazed from the top.
The tower was built with 3 1/2 times more structural steel than needed for a modern skyscraper of like size. Hence, it is exceptionally heavy (12 million pounds!), cross braced on every other level. Bracing was left out on purpose to provide flexibility in case of an earthquake. The structure is an I-beam construction using 500 tons of steel for a frame encased in concrete and granite facing. The foundation is constructed of reinforced concrete and begins 18 feet underground.
The Campanile’s bells arrived in stages, and amid drama. The first 12, cast in England, were ready to ship in 1915, but didn’t land in Berkeley until 1917. Their journey was delayed by the risk to British ships in World War I of German submarine attacks, then by customs issues in San Francisco. Once installed, they comprised a chime – a carillon requires 23 or more bells. Alumni gifts in 1978 and 1983 provided enough new bells to create a 48-bell concert carillon, then a 61-bell grand carillon. Today, UC Berkeley has the only permanent, full-time carillonist position at a North American university.